While the scope and length of the current economic crisis is still unclear—unemployment rates are at a record high, the number of day laborers looking for work at Home Depot is growing and a quarter of DC residents are living below the poverty line-- what is clear is that the Fenty administration is chipping away at our City’s safety net by selling off the public sector to private interests.

More than 200 highschool students wearing all black walked out of classes Monday to protest the layoff of 388 school employees last week. Chanting "No counselors, no college!" students met at McKinley Technology High School and marched towards schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's office. “We are here because our education in on the line,” said one student. “We have no teachers. All our counselors have been laid off. I am a senior, I want to graduate, I want to go to college, I want to have a future but how can I do that without a school counselor.

Day laborers in DC scored another big victory on October 2nd: recovering over $10,000 in stolen wages for eight workers. Several members of the Union de Trabajadores de Washington, DC, a day laborer association, had been doing work on a DC public school building over the summer, and were paid less than promised. They reached out to DC Jobs with Justice and the DC Employment Justice Center, who quickly realized this public project entitled the workers to higher, “prevailing wages” for their work.